Wow, it has been awhile since I have written a blog post! There isn't an unusual reason for my disappearance. I've simply been swallowed up in the routine of my life at the moment. I have very little time alone to focus on anything creative (or to do any one of about 500 items on a list of things that require any amount of concentration or aloneness...including writing this post, which took three days...)

Days blend together. I drive the same roads. I follow the same schedule. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of comfort to be found in this rhythm. Predictable is manageable and repeatable. On the other hand, though, not venturing out into new things tends to make everything stale. I have no new surfaces off of which to bounce ideas. No new inspiration. Nothing new to reflect on or mull in my mind with the wide-eyed excitement that comes with novel thoughts. Summer is here just in time to mix things up and to send me out to play and explore.

I had an amazing dream the other night. I was in a desert with my husband and our kids and the light was a perfect pinky-gold. It looked like we were walking around inside of an Instagram filter! Each of us had a huge bunch of colorful balloons and we were running over the dry and cracked ground with our bundles and laughing. As we let the balloons go and watched them rise slowly into the sky, I felt more carefree and happy than I have in a long time. The only thing on my mind was that moment- the laughing and the sweet light and the balloons. Nothing was inching its way into the "what is next on my list" slot in my brain. Simplicity.

The dream created a strong craving in my soul to have more moments like that. To spend more of my time playing instead of to-do-ing.

So, what am I doing now? I am planning ahead for summer. Fun stuff, projects, camping trips. I also have what some might call a "summer bucket list" but I don't really care for that name as it implies that I will be "kicking the bucket" at the end of the summer. No, I like to think of this more of a manifesto of sorts. Or, at the very least, just a list of things that I want to do this summer.

My summer manifesto:

Summer reading:

I loved this book: Mile Markers: The 26.2 Most Important Reasons Why Women Run by Kristin Armstrong

This quote from the book captures a little piece of what spoke so loudly to me from its pages. I love the shift in my thoughts about running that this simple paragraph gave me:

I will be swimming, biking, and running this summer too. So far I have one 5k run and one sprint distance triathlon on my race calendar and there are a couple more races that I'm considering. This is how I access and relieve my restlessness too!

A little bit of my summer reading list:

I use a private Amazon wish list to keep track of what I want to read in the summer. I do tend to lean heavily into fiction this time of year- it feels so fitting for afternoons at the beach or on the patio.

Do you keep a summer reading list? What are you planning to read this year?

Summer Vacation

While I'm in summertime mode, while I'm reading fiction and dipping my toes in the ocean, I will likely be blogging less. I will share highlights and memorable moments here and there but I'll be taking the pressure off of myself to write for the sake of frequency. I will check in on Twitter and Facebook a little more often and goodness knows that I'll be pinning things on Pinterest!

This is a summer vacation of sorts for me and this kind of unplugging is something that I don't do well or often. I need to focus on my kids and their summer without the sound of my voice saying, "just a minute. Hold on a second. Give me five minutes, please." I need to thin the chatter in my brain that constantly urges me to have good ideas. I need to exist, moment to moment, in my world in this season of downtime. I need time to read and daydream and garden; time to watch honeybees at work with my boys; time to sip cold water with strawberries and mint; time to draw crazy pictures with brightly colored markers that make my kids giggle; and time to gather with friends and talk about good juicy things until it is way too late to still be awake.

Happy summer!

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air." 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week was spring break for us and we were on a week-long RV trip along the coast of Northern California and inland in Southern Oregon. Despite cold temperatures and a couple of rainy days, we managed to see several beautiful places and even take a couple of small hikes in the majestic redwoods near Jedediah Smith State Park.

Headed west through greener-than-green rolling hills:
Fort Bragg:

Glass beach (this place was literally a dump in 1949. Now it is a state park filled with gorgeous pieces of sea glass):

My sea glass finds (I left them there- it is a misdemeanor to remove them from the beach!):

Surf's up in Crescent City:

Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City:

My little "Ewoks" at "Endor" (parts of the Ewok scenes in Star Wars were filmed near Jedediah Smith State Park):

The stunningly turquoise-green Smith River:

These trees don't look big in the photo until you compare them to the size of our RV!:

Hiking trail:

Eating healthy on our trip was relatively easy because we had an RV (thus a fridge and kitchen). We did, of course, indulge in too many sweets (it was vacation and Easter, after all)! We have been home for four days and I finally made it to the grocery store to restock today. Time to get back on track!

Speaking of healthy eating on-the-go, that is the topic of my latest article in Freeplay magazine. You can read the entire issue, including my article on page 14, here. <Link outdated, removed>

I have not always been able to cook well. When I first moved out on my own I was completely lost in the kitchen. I would frequently wrap white rice and cheese in a tortilla and microwave it for dinner. Sometimes my roommate and I would make tater tots. Sometimes we would make a weird noodle and lettuce combo that we called "pasta salad". Eek.

A few years later, my mom sent me a gift subscription to Cooking Light Magazine. The magazine was exactly what I needed to get me on the road to cooking real food. I was a little intimidated by the recipes at first, but I followed them exactly and started to have some success with things that seemed fancy to tortilla-microwaving me. The first time that I made an actual meal with more than one thing on the plate, I felt like a culinary rockstar!

These days I cook a huge variety of foods and, even though I rarely follow recipes exactly as they are written, I adore cookbooks. I am also very comfortable with creating meals on the fly with whatever I have in the kitchen (and that happens a lot because I hate grocery shopping and try to put it off as long as I can)!

Among my favorite cookbooks are those written by Dreena Burton. Dreena's recipes stand out to me not only because they are delicious but also because they tend to be much lower in fat and sugar than others. Being a mother of three small kids, she understands the constant pursuit for healthy things that our kids will eat. I can tell that she has given careful thought to adding protein, iron, and other healthy elements to her foods and that fits exactly with how I approach building a meal for my family. Many of Dreena's recipes have become staples in our house and her cookies and brownies are my go-to recipes for times when nothing but a cookie (or three...) will fix whatever is wrong!

Given my love of Dreena's first three books, I was honored and very excited to be given the chance to review her brand new book, Let Them Eat Vegan!: 200 Deliciously Satisfying Plant-Powered Recipes for the Whole Family!

February was a bit of a rough month at our house. My kids were both sick with a cold and a cough and then I came down with bronchitis, a sinus infection, and an ear infection. I didn't even know that grown-ups could get ear infections! Just when I thought we were all getting back to normal, our family started falling on-by-one to the stomach flu. Somehow I escaped that part. It could have been all of the disinfecting that I was doing or maybe just luck. Either way I think we are all back to normal now, PHEW!

Even though March has been quite rainy here, I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation! The sunny days, when we have them, are warm. The birds are all over the place and tweeting like crazy, even on the cloudy days. The other day, after an all-day rain had stopped, I went out in our front yard. The sky was still cloudy but the air felt electric and warm. The grass, plants, and trees were glowing a bright spectrum of green and spring flowers, bright pinks and purples, were all around. Birds were flying and chirping all over the place and it felt heavenly. So middle-of-nowhere. Encompassing. I felt ensconced in my connection to it all and blessed that this was all happening right outside our front door.

Lately when I daydream, which happens a lot, I am thinking about summer vacation and homemade berry jam. Spring is definitely here!

Have you seen the Keen campaign, "Recess is back"?

I love this concept as I am a firm believer that we all benefit from play time. Vacations provide an excellent opportunity to fortify our lives with connection and new experiences. How, though, do we implement "recess" in the context of our daily grind? Daily life is where we pass our time. So how do we bring more fun and playfulness into our ready-set-go schedules? I am passionate about this subject. I even have a Bachelor's Degree in Recreation and Leisure studies!

Since both of my kids will be out of school and home for the summer, I am planning ahead to make sure that we keep ourselves busy. Not so busy that we can't daydream and sip lemonade; but busy enough that we end our days with the tired smiles that come from all-day exploring, sprinkler dodging, tent pitching, and other summer goodness. I'll share more of my plans and our adventures here in the coming months.

For now, I challenge you to find a little "recess" time in your schedule! What is your favorite way to play outside?

I wanted to let you guys know that Jodi passed away on Saturday morning. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers and remember to be kind, be generous, and be wonderful. Love to you sweet Jodi! xoxo

I graduated from college in 1996. As my fellow graduates and I moved on and out into the world and our new lives, I think that we all wondered at least a little bit about how it would go for our peers. Where would they find work? Where would they settle? 

What doesn't cross your mind in your invincible 20s is the possibility that your life may be impacted by things so much bigger than job interviews and new beginnings. What if, after you find your place in the world and build the life that you have always dreamed of, things are derailed by cancer?

One of my fellow graduates is showing the world her answer to that question. Jodi is fighting an inoperable cancer. What is so amazing about her story is that, in the process of this, she is also working hard to spread optimism and kindness. She and her family put together a "fun list" of things that they want to experience together. The list included serving free ice cream to people in her community on her birthday, shaking hands with (and getting a hug from) President Obama, and being a guest on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Because of the amazing people in Jodi's life, she has accomplished all three of these things!

Ellen gave Jodi and her family a check for $30,000 from the folks at Sara Lee to help put her children through college. Amazing kindness!

Thank you for your support!

xoxo

Updated 2018: media and other links removed as they were no longer valid.